


Hive

by hella_avie



Series: WATTS [1]
Category: No Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:34:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23111794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hella_avie/pseuds/hella_avie
Series: WATTS [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1661236
Kudos: 2





	1. Hives

It was a cold day in the tiny town of Zetrezke. Well, one says town; a hive could hardly be called a town, it was something different. Towns were horizontal.   
Pozak Neffezhim was pondering what his home should be called because he wasn't bothered by the cold. His fuzzy carapace and the clothes on his back were more than enough to keep him warm.  


Zetrezke Hive Alpha was just one of several bizarre pimples on the landscape. Hives Beta through Zeta weren't living spaces though. Beta was for farming, Gamma was for factories, specifically wax processing, Epsilon was more like a silo holding honey and various other foodstuffs, and Zeta was a thing that extended deep into the ground, for emergency evacuation.  
In fact, Zeta was where Pozak was going. He and his gang of rather peculiar individuals were going to the very bottom of Hive Zeta and down into the caves below. There had been earthquakes recently, and Banquo had traced them to directly underneath the hive.  


Speaking of Banquo, there sie was now.  
"Howdy."  
Banquo didn't say anything back. It was understandable; sie was a plant. A sapient plant, but a plant nonetheless. Regardless, Pozak felt a vague feeling of affection coming to his mind from the direction of Banquo and took that as a greeting. They walked in silence from then on, not out of any coldness between them, but simply because Pozak was very good at magical barriers. Banquo's thoughts could hardly reach him even if he wanted them to.

The walk to Zeta was a short one. The rest had already gathered at the entrance, trying to crack it open.  
"I keep tellin' ya, we gotta use force," said the tall lady brandishing a sword.  
"Calm the hell down, Slako. I'm trying to concentrate here?" replied the strange cyclopic thing focusing on the trapdoor.  
"Listen, One-Eyes, I didn't come here to deal with your--" Slako sniffed the air and cracked a grin. "Fuzz-ass. Flytrap. What took you so long? I've had to deal with these morons for an hour."  
"Maybe if you hadn't gotten here an hour early, you wouldn't have had to?" Pozak didn't even blink at Slako's latest derisive nickname for him. She had a new one pretty often. Somewhere under the bristly, toothy exterior, Pozak thought he saw some affection past her constant barbs.  
"Hmm. I'd consider it, but also shut up. We gotta get in here, any ideas?"  
"Is Kai having any luck with the lock?"  
Kaichesco chimed in. "It's electronic. Can't just push the pins up. But I've discovered that there are measures in place to prevent forced entry."  
"Huh. Let me try."

Pozak raised his hand, palm pointed towards the trapdoor. " **Coma**!" Tendrils of force snaked out from the joints in his carapace, slowly at first, then blasting out. He saw and felt them ducking and weaving through the cracks of a shell of concentric spheres. The force started to reach through to the door, blasting it off its hinge and letting it fall to the bottom of the well below.  
Magenta haze rose off of Pozak's body, venting violently through his shell. He let out a breath. His antennae, which had been standing straight up, calmed and fell to their original positions.  


Pozak opened his eyes. The opposing force had been completely shattered.  
"Well, come on, then." Pozak started climbing down the ladder.   
Slako closed her dropped jaw. "You've gotten better at magic, Fuzz." She sheathed her sword and followed.  
Kaichesco and Banquo followed soon after.  


Some time after they all entered, someone else arrived. He noticed the shattered spell and the blown-off door and his eyes widened with excitement.  
He straightened his rucksack, unbuttoned the clasp keeping his sword in its sheath, and began the climb down.


	2. The Bottom

At the very bottom of Hive Zeta, all the way at the lowest level of the caves below, a bug was clattering around and making a mess. 

His name was Mestago Verezki, and clattering around and making a mess was not a new concept for him.

Mestago was just a little bit... petulant. Though he was raised to be a proud warrior, like the rest of his Herecul brethren, he was certainly prone to tantrums, and such a strong bug had destructive tantrums. His stolen sword and shield had caused quite more than its fair share of property damage since he left the lands of his people.

He was searching for a corpse. Naturally, he didn't expect what would happen when he actually found it.

***

After several separate ladders and even more pointless rooms, Pozak's feet finally touched the cold ground inside Hive Zeta's top floor. Zeta was designed differently from the other hives; instead of the natural, waxy sheen of Alpha and Beta, or the smooth gray plastic of Gamma and Epsilon, it was layers of metal. Looked like some kind of steel, but Pozak felt the presence of lead beneath it scraping against his consciousness.

"Shove off the ladder, Fuzz. Tryin' to get down, here."

"Oh, right." Pozak stepped towards the center of the room. The rest followed.

Kaichesco stopped. "Guys, wait up a sec?" Their one eye opened wider, past their usual half-closed, put-upon expression. Their pupil started to dilate.

"What's up, Kai?"

"There's something here..."

"No shit, One-Eye. Maybe tell us what it is."

Kaichesco dropped to their knees.

Banquo started to look around frantically. Sie collapsed into a pile of vines, slithering as far as possible away from the stairway leading down.

Slako started to look uneasy, and took out her sword.

Pozak started to feel something pressing on his mind. The something was different from all of the presences he had felt before. Slowly, he realized it was different because it had been so long since he had felt a malevolence around him. He had certainly never felt something so... off. Wrong. It was abhorrent.

Then it came. A roar too loud to only be in his mind yet... nobody else seemed to hear. They just kneeled, lay, and crouched where they had been. Tears flooded out of Kaichesco's eye. Pollen was floating through the room. The tip of Slako's sword had long since fallen to the ground.

Something flew past the group, rising up the ladder. All Pozak could make out of it was a smile, and all he could hear was its laugh.

From up the ladder came a quiet "Unf!" Seconds later a short creature landed on the ground.

He stood up and dusted himself off. Checked his bag, made sure his sword was still alright. 

"Hiya! I--" was all he could get out before Slako's sword was at his throat.

***

It took a minute for Slako to put her sword down.

"Keh. Not scenting any bad intentions." Her rows of teeth settled into a calmer expression. "But drop your sword, kid." 

He complied. "Can I at least introduce myself?"

"Eh. Doesn't matter to me." Slako slouched over to Kaichesco and tried slapping them awake.

The stranger turned to Pozak. "So, uh... hiya!"

"Howdy."

"The name's Tobit! I'm here to look at cave paintings."

"Well, Tobit, do you happen to know what exactly just happened? Anything similar, maybe?"

"Huh... let me check." Tobit sat cross-legged on the floor and pulled his rucksack out in front of him. He unbuckled the clasp and pulled out what must have been a mile of assorted parchments. A buzzing, clicking sound came out of him as he absently played with an antenna. "Hmm...more than ghost...more than ghost...there it is!" He cleared his throat. "An Account of the Ghostly Life. 12th cycle, 6th decade, Queen's year 402. My comrades and I were traveling through the long cave, as the locals called it. Keleptre noticed some strange sigils on the wall and touched them, cutting his hand on the rock...the wall began to crack. Felamor, a local psychic we had brought with us, fell to his knees, crying. The very earth herself began to shake. And out of the wall came a strange, shadowy knight. Ghostly chains echoed over his skin. He was a Herecul, and on his face was the sigil most repeated in the cave's art. He flew past us, cackling, and as we touched I felt him halfway...he was more than ghost, but less than life..." Tobit looked up. "Sound familiar?"

"Ow, ow, ow! I woke up 6 slaps ago, moron!"

"Keheheheheh. Just making sure."

Armored footsteps began barreling up the stairway.


	3. Connection

Pozak's head turned towards the stairs. His antennae started to twitch; they always did that when he was nervous.

The armored feet started clanking slower. Pozak thought whoever was coming towards the group had noticed them. Their footsteps stopped. There was a different noise. The sound of overbearing silence. Slowly, a swirling of wind began to pick up. Pozak could smell a hint of magic in the wind rushing through the room. It smelled like clay and moss, suspended over steel and smoke. His senses picked up on the spell's three aspects. VORTEX:SENSE:READ. 

Mestago Verezki opened his eyes. His palm's carapace closed back up, and he knew exactly what was in the room. He sneezed due to all of the pollen he had absorbed. His entire suit of armor rattled with metallic clangs. 'Ah, well.' he thought, and charged into the round room.

Pozak heard the clattering and the slam of metal footsteps on the stairs and lifted his palm.

SHELL:FIRM:BULWARK.

A pinkish quarter-sphere erupted immediately in front of the stairway. Pozak caught a glimpse of the stranger rising out of the stairwell. He saw the bug's eyes narrow as they bent forward and rammed their horn directly through Pozak's shield, shattering it. Pozak stepped back, blown away by the shock of brute force breaking a spell.

"Hello, weaklings. Away from the ladder."

"Hmm. Nah."

Kaichesco said, "Poz, I don't think it's a good idea to deny this guy. I'm reading them, and they seem very, very determined."

"I got this, Kai. Don't worry." He turned to the stranger. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

The stranger threw their head back and chortled. "Cheheheheheh! The fool is a brave one! Very well. You're speaking to Mestago Verezki! Champion of the Fogged Waste! Lord of the Herecul! Tremble in fear, because if you don't step OUT of my way, you won't stay standing for very long!"

Pozak narrowed his eyes and snorted. "You do realize there are 5 of us and just one of you, right?"

Mestago grinned. "Perfect. It's a fair fight." He lunged at Pozak, sword in hand.

Pozak had known this was going to happen. He had been psychically connected to Kaichesco since he had replied to them, and Kaichesco had been reading Mestago since the moment they had seen him. As a result of this, Pozak also knew that Mestago was scared out of his mind. Well, one part of his mind, at least. Pozak felt an iron resolve in the heart and mind of Mestago. It scared him, to be honest. This was somebody Pozak couldn't break. Regardless, Pozak was still able to deflect the lunge with a shielded hand.

"Your cue, Slako."

Slako smiled, baring all of her teeth, and tossed her sword directly at Mestago. Pozak had expected this would end the fight rather quickly, but unfortunately, that fucker caught it.

"You're too kind. Thank you for the-" he began running, "lovely-" he started spinning both blades at once, "gift!" With this last exclamation, he...stopped. Or, more accurately, something had stopped him. Mestago looked at his hand. Out of his right palm, a bundle of vines were growing. "I- wh-" He thought back a few moments, and remembered the pollen he had absorbed. "That can't be possible! I control that space!" His right palm's compartment opened, allowing Banquo to force hir head through. Her mouth opened wide in a shout. The vines continued to grow at a blistering pace. Eventually, Mestago's body was covered.

Pozak walked over to him. "Explain yourself."

Mestago was struggling. "Unhand me! I have an important mission, you morons!"

"Yeah, no. What are you doing here?"

Mestago's eyes lit up and he started to mutter. "...under my control...under my control..."

Slako walked over. "Shit, he's losin' it."

Pozak heard the same deafening silence and rushing wind. In his mind echoed the words CONCEAL:VORTEX:ESCAPE. Suddenly, Mestago vanished. His helmet remained, and skidded across the floor as if it had a mind of its own. The helmet sprouted six legs and scuttled up the ladder. Halfway up, Mestago's body sprouted from the helmet like he had fallen out of it, and he crawled up and out of sight.

"Damn. Weird. What a dumbass."

"He forcefully cut my telepathic tie."

Pozak turned towards Kaichesco. "Wait, he fuckin' huh?"

"The moment he disappeared I lost connection."

"Hmm. Did he really disappear for a second? It's like he went into an alternate dimension or something."

"Huh. Last thing I got from him was just the word 'him'."

Slako walked over after retrieving her sword. "Let's assume somethin' for a mo. Can we think of that ghost thing as the him we're talkin' about? Feels like that's our only lead."

"Yeah. I mean, I can't think of any other him he could be talking about."

"About that." Tobit had pulled out another manuscript. "I just looked at something I had clipped to that last document...it's an old Herecul diagram. From what I can read of it, it's a kind of binding used to seal powerful warriors. Looks like the idea was to preserve their strength 'for the end'."

"...huh. Someone wants this power for himself...well, come on. We'll have to follow him, or maybe wait for him to make an appearance." Pozak led the group back. He paused. "Tobit, you too. You can stay with me if you want."

"Ah, really? Thank you kindly. It's a long way to the nest. I'll help you out with the whole Mestago thing."

"Yeah, that's kinda why I'm letting you stay with me in the first place. You seem like you could help a lot."

Tobit beamed. "Thank you! I'll do my best." And, picking up his sword, he followed the group.

"'Ey, Fuzz. Me an' One-eye over here are stayin' too. After all, what'd you do without me?" Slako cracked a big smile and started jumping up the ladder, dragging Kaichesco with her.

Pozak shook his head and rolled his eyes.

The next few months would prove uneventful for them. Their little group was happy living together, and only a little on edge waiting for something to happen. 

Meanwhile, the next few months were harrowing for Mestago. He fought through the toughest creatures out there to reach the most magically charged places in the world, only to find that his target wasn't there. His shell was notched from head to toe.

It would be a while before he found what he needed. A while still to get through a certain door.


End file.
